MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS

MR WONG KAN SENG Minister for Home Affairs

1. The Home Team will keep Singapore safe and secure through community partnership, tough laws, and effective enforcement. Nurturing Home Team Officers

2. The Home Team will build up the skills level of our officers to meet new safety and security threats. The Police will set up a dedicated training unit to build up advanced investigative expertise force-wide. They will also build up expertise to tackle cyber crime. Officers will be trained to operate in a cyber environment. Legislative changes and enforcement policies will also be put in place to tackle this new threat.

3. The Home Team concept calls for all MHA Departments to operate as a team. A new Home Team Campus will be built to train officers from all Home Team agencies. The Home Team Campus will replace the Police Academy.

Upgrading Operational Capabilities And Enforcement Effectiveness

4. MHA will ensure that the necessary infrastructure, equipment and legislative powers are in place to support effective enforcement. The Penal Code is being reviewed to ensure penalties are up-to-date and effective in controlling crime. The Finance Ministry's Commercial Affairs Department will be combined with the Police's Commercial Crime Division. This will enable the new Commercial Affairs Department to combat complex commercial crimes more effectively.

5. The Police Coast Guard will be equipped with more detection systems and new generation high-speed boats to tackle illegal immigrants coming in by sea. More operations will be conducted to keep out and catch immigration offenders.

6. The Central Narcotics Bureau will maintain a tight control over the drug situation, through tough enforcement action and effective preventive measures. The Central Narcotics Bureau will nip in the bud any threat from new synthetic drugs.

7. Six new fire stations will be built in tandem with population shifts. The ambulance fleet will be expanded. All fire stations will be equipped to manage hazardous materials accidents. In particular, given the high concentration of petroleum, petrochemical and chemical industries on Jurong Island, SCDF will work with the industry to put in place a special contingency plan for hazard management.

8. A new Changi Prisons Complex will be built to accommodate the projected rise in inmate population, resulting from the general population increase and the trend towards stiffer penalties for criminal and drug offenders. The new Complex will centralise institutions in one location.

Community Partnership

9. In line with the spirit of Active Citizenship, the Home Team will increase community participation through the Community Safety and Security Programme (CSSP). More community groups will be co-opted as Home Team partners, to jointly tackle safety and security concerns.

10. The Prisons Department will also work with voluntary organisations to improve rehabilitative measures to give amenable inmates a higher chance of successfully re-integrating to society.

11. In addition, MHA will introduce community-based sentences, such as home detention, community service orders and probation and boot camp for young offenders, to broaden the range of sentences. By working in concert with the community and the offenders' families, these options will offer younger and first-timers of minor offences, a more conducive environment in which to reform. We will also work with the Inter-Ministry Committee on Youth Crime to deal with problems associated with out-of-school youths.